Fiddle.



PATENTED AUG. 13, 1907.

B; M. WOOD.

FIDDLE.

APPLICATION FILED n12.15, 190s.

WITNESSES 21.1% INVENITOR.

u R a o n l n r EMERY M. WOOD, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

FIDDLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 13, 1907.

Application filed March 15, 1905. Serial N0. 250,303.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it. known that I, EMnRY M. WOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful form of Fiddle, and of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in' that class of musical instruments only which are adapted for playing with a bow, and the object of my improvements is to provide such an instrument having a set of strings more powerful, placed closer to the top and close to one side of the body and made bowable throughout a greater distance from the bridge, and having a sounding-board broader at the bridge and better adapted for responsive vibration thus making the instrument more easily played and more effective than any such instrument heretofore provided.

I attain this object by the new form of body and the new arrangement of the other essential parts illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a top view of the entire instrument. Fig. 2 is a top, sectional and bottom view of one of the tuning pegs shown at T in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a bottom view of a portion of the instrument. Fig. 1 is a somewhat enlarged side view of the body and fingerboard, with the vibrating part of a single string. Fig. 5 is a vertical cross section of the instrument at the line 0, O, in Fig. 1 and viewed as from the right-hand end of Fig. 1. and drawn to a scale double that of Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a like enlarged vertical cross section of the instrument at the line P, P, in Fig. 1. and viewed as from the left-hand end of Fig. 1. Fig. 7 is a like enlarged vertical cross section of the instrument at the line R, R, in Fig. 1 and viewed as from the left-hand end of Fig. 1.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

My device has a body of the ovate though somewhat bent form shown in Fig. l, and has a set of five-strings E, C, Fig. 1, and a fingerboard F, both extending lengthwise of the body, and has a bridge B and a nut N, by and between which the set of strings is supported above the body and over the fingerboard F.

The strings are attached at their ends to the top of the body, fixedly at A, and by means of tuning pegs at T, and are graded in size and thus adapted for tuning to pitches descending the interval of a fifth successively from the first string E to the fifth string C, thus giving distinctively a treble side and a bass side to the instrument and to its parts, the treble side being the side which is presented in Fig. 4, which is toward the bottom of the drawing in Fig. l, to the left hand in Fig. 5 and to the right hand in Figs. 6 and 7.

The body consists mainly of a hollow shell formed, as shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, with a swelled top U, a swelled bottom L and a connecting vertical wall S, the inner surface of the wall being also shown at S at Fig. 1. A handle H and a thumb channel D, Figs. 1 and 3, are formed in the body beneath the fingerboard F, and the bottom L of the shell, Figs. 5 and 6, is also the soumling-board of the instrument.

As shown in Fig. 1, that portion of the body extending between bridge B and nut N is tapered in breadth, being comparatively very broad at bridge B, and thence diminishing gradually in its breadth to nut N, and the set of strings E, C, is so placed as to bring its treble side E within a vertical plane which is very close to and very nearly parallel with the treble side of .the body where so tapered, and further, as shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the set of strings E, C, the fingerboard F (Figs. 6 and 7), and the nut N (Fig. 7), and the top of the bridge B (Fig. 5) are all rounded from side to side and also are all inclined downward from the bass side O to the treble side E of the set of strings.

That limited portion of the swelled top U, Fig. 5, which is more immediately beneath the set of strings, as shown in Fig. 5 is made of extra thickness and is also likewise curved and inclined, and thus is brought close to each of the strings in order to make it more exclusively sustain the strain of the heavier set of strings including the fifth string 0, and it is thus that the power and compass of the instrument is increased without any consequential increase in the thickness and weight of the sonorous parts of the shell. The portion of the top U having this extra thickness is made an exterior feature, forming an offset along the lines U U in Fig. 1.

The bridge passes through the top of the shell without having any contact therewith, at the soundholes V, Fig. 1, where, as shown in Fig. 5, the top part of the bridge is branched and is made separable from the bottom part, while the bottom part is provided with two separated feet by which the bridge rests upon the sounding-board L. The sounding-board, thus placed at the bottom of the body, where it is not required to sustain any compressive strain, can be exclusively and hence the more perfectly adapted for responsive vibration, and at the same time, affords sufficient space above it for a bridge of the proportionate altitude and form required for a bow instrument, while yet supporting the strings close to the body,

In Figs. 5 and G, the broken lines meeting at .T, repre sent the different positions required for a bow, to touch separately each exterior string, and this without touching the edges of the body, thus showing that all the strings are made bowable throughout half their length from the bridge, that is, anywhere between the lines 0,0, and P, P, in Fig. 1, while the dotted lines forming the same angle at .I in Fig. 5 show that in any other than the extreme one-sided position, the strings would require greater elevation above the edges of the body. In addition to the advantages of placing the sounding-board at the bottom of the body above stated, this one-sided position of the strings secures all the other advantages claimed for the device. It places the finger board throughout its entire length close to the edge of the body across which the fingering is done, it reduces to a minimum the effect of string tension on the body and thus not only compensates for the heavier set of strings but goes beyond this requirement in holding the strings more constantly in tune, it secures the greater breadth of the body and soundingboard at the bridge by making it consistent with the necessity of bowing the strings, and it places the bass foot of the bridge near the middle of the soundingboard and its treble foot near one edge of the board, thus securing the difference in firmness of the soundingboard beneath the feet of the bridge which is required for a bow instrument.

The strings are preferably steel strings. The tuning pegs are of metal, and are adapted for turning by means of a key fitting alike all the pegs.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is A musical instrument consisting of a hollow body, a bridge and a nut thereon, the body diminishing in breadth from the bridge to the nut, the bridge and nut being rounded on top, placed close to and inclined toward one side of the body the bridge extending through the top of the body without contact therewith, and resting interiorly upon the bottom of the body, a fingerboard extending from the nut toward the bridge, a handle beneath the fingerboard and a set of strings strained between and across the bridge and nut, the string of highest pitch being nearest the same side of the body with the bridge and nut, all substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EMERY M. YVOOD.

Witnesses Lonnrx O. TENHOPEN, Crmnnns J. POTTER. 

